So I ordered my Kindle Fire TV 2 days ago because I've always wanted my APPLE TV to seamlessly play Amazon Prime videos to my TV (and no air mirroring an ios device to apple tv doesn't count). I'll probably post a more in depth review on Amazon but here are my first impressions:

GAMES

Surprisingly Amazon doesn't make you use only their game controller (something apple will do) to play games. My 24 dollar Nyko controller I bought for my nvidia shield works really well. I tried Asphault 8 and Sev Zero on it. The controls work fine and on a TV these games look like first gen Dreamcast games, in a good way lol. It doesn't run Asphault at the highest settings so it's not as amazingly gorgeous as playing it on A7 powered IOS devices (or the Nvidia shield). It still looks good at high settings though.

Sev Zero is an interesting tower defense fps hybrid where you can beam your guy to defend the base against aliens. I remember playing a game like this before and it was this old PC game called UPRISING where I can beam my tank to places I needed to defend if I remember correctly. The fire has 8gb of storage so if developers get on board then this is a nail in the coffin for the OUYA again lol. I didn't exactly buy this device to play games on it BUT I did always want the Apple TV to play games and it looks like Amazon beat them to it. As a matter of fact Amazon has seemed to hire a few developers to make games just for the Kindle fire TV so they could be a serious contender with set top box gaming with exclusives.

APPS

I tried Hulu plus, netflix and youtube and amazon prime which all work great. One thing I can't stand about the Apple tv is when i'm done watching a show it doesn't automatically play the next episode like this does. Voice search works great and I wish I could use my kindle fire for a keyboard or something like how you can do this with Apple TV and ios devices. It's pretty neat beaming a video I'm watching to the TV, but then again you could do this with the iPad to Apple TV too and even the Kindle fire hdx to PS3. I wish there was an app that could stream content to my external HD full of videos connected to my router but I can at least stream my custom videos on my HDX to FIRE TV which works I guess.

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS

To me, this is a non essential device if you have and don't mind using a gaming console to stream to the TV. I have the Apple TV because I wanted to own all the apple products and stream games and videos from iPad to TV, but I never found myself using the device that much. As for my gaming consoles I prefer to keep them plugged to my PC monitor. I do have my Xbox one hooked up to my tv and split into my monitor and I'd probably say that's probably the device media center/gaming device right now if you pay for xbox live. That thing does everything including Twitch streaming (i think it's coming to the fire tv in the future), which I find surprisingly fun to watch others play games.

The Ps4 of course can stream all of this stuff too, but I like my xbox one more because I think Sony limits twitch streams to only ps4 streams and you really can't beat the voice commands. Even with the ps4 camera it feels pretty limited. I do think I'll enjoy my Fire TV more because it's super quiet unlike my xbox one and it's small and sleek looking rather than being an eyesore. Seriously, it looks so outdated and I like good looking gadgets!.

For anyone that pays for amazon prime (they actually have a good selection now yay) and is thinking about buying this thing I feel that this is a great purchase for the 100 bucks. It might be wiser to wait to see what Apple has in store in the coming months though. I think in the coming months and years the value from these things won't just come from streaming content, but seeing what apps come out for these devices and seeing what kind of games you'll be be able to play on these boxes, vs paying 15-60 dollars for console games. Yes I know an AAA game on a console doesn't compare to a 99 cent to 5 dollar game app, but if you're spending a few bucks on a game that will last you hours/days/weeks, then this will really disrupt the gaming industry :-D Feel free to ask any questions about it, I'll be playing around with this for a bit.

EDIT: I ended up giving this to my dad, not because I don't like it, but because my Xbox one runs the same apps I use. YouTube is exactly the same on it and the Voice search is superior on the Xbox one. It's limited to Amazon videos and Hulu on the Amazon Fire TV, which is kind of lame. I don't see myself playing smartphone game apps on these set top boxes and I'm happy gaming on my PC and Consoles on the TV at home.

I'm pretty happy with mine. The remote is bluetooth and doesn't require line-of-sight like the crappy IR remote that Microsponge put out for the XBone. It only has 6gig or memory free so you won't be loading it up with games from the amazon appstore but that's ok too. It's inferior in performance to most modern droid phones and my NVidia Shield.

The voice search sends you to amazon instant video even when the program you are looking for is free on Netflix and costs $$$ from amazon. Doesn't bother me. I know what I'm looking for.

Integrates well with the Kindle Fire HDX which works as an X-Ray second screen and with the only game they've published for the Fire TV specifically so far, Sev Zero. Sev isn't bad at all as a bargain clone of Coffee Stain studio's Sanctum games on PC.

It really doesn't do anything that I don't already have several other devices to do. It just does all of it, and better. It is instant on, and you don't even see it since it's so small and doesn't need to be up front.

I'd like something like this for Netflix, Amazon Prime, MLB.tv - don't care about the games too much. You give it a pass on sending you to Amazon when the movie/show is free on Netflix, but IMHO that sucks. Hopefully Apple does a better job with the next Apple TV.

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